The rights which a man arrogates to himself are relative to the duties which he sets himself, and to the tasks which he feels capable of performing.

The same relation exists between merchant and pirate, who for a long period are one and the same person: where the one function appears to them inadvisable, they exercise the other.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

A book full of brilliance imparts some of it even to its opponents.

A belief, however necessary it may be for the preservation of a species, has nothing to do with truth. The falseness of a judgment is not for us necessarily an objection to a judgment. The question is to what extent it is life-promoting, life-preserving, species preserving, perhaps even species cultivating. To recognize untruth as a condition of life--that certainly means resisting accustomed value feelings in a dangerous way; and a philosophy that risks this would by that token alone place itself beyond good and evil.

In the world of high finance the shilling of the idle rich man can buy more than that of the poor, industrious man.

Great men's errors are to be venerated as more fruitful than little men's truths.